state natural area poems #23: cudahy woods in fall

gill, spore, and stipe

they sound and found the forest

messengers of earth from below

puffball colony
dense polypores
gilled
canopy above

cudahy woods is where this whole “living found poem” project started back in march—a 40-acre plot of old-growth forest with an unnamed stream running thru. right next to mitchell airport. we’ve kept an eye on this forest periodically since march, and it’s been a gift to watch its communities shift, grow, and die back to make way for others.